1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus, method and computer-readable data storage medium for processing images from a negotiable instrument, and more particularly to an image processing apparatus and method for acquiring images from negotiable instruments for use in electronically clearing payments of negotiable instruments such as checks and other financial instruments.
2. Description of Related Art
Negotiable instruments such as checks, gift certificates, coupons and the like are often used to settle transactions between businesses as well as pay for purchases in stores and restaurants. A typical payment process using a check as the negotiable instrument is described below.
Tracking information including the bank code and account number of the check is printed to the front of each check and can be used to verify whether a check is valid.
When a check is presented for payment in a store, for example, check validity is confirmed, the front of the check is completed with the date, amount, and payer signature, and an endorsement is then printed on the back. The check front and endorsement are today commonly printed by a POS printer so that the payer only needs to sign the check. After check processing is completed in the store, the check is then passed to a bank or other financial clearinghouse for check clearing. Advances in image processing technologies in recent years have enabled checks to be cleared more efficiently by electronically transmitting images of the check front and back together with transaction data instead of handling the physical check.
Negotiable instruments such as checks, gift certificates and the like also typically have a background pattern printed on the front. This can make it difficult to read such important information as the account number, payment amount, payer, payee, and signature if the imaging resolution is low. On the other hand, capturing check images at high resolution or in color results in a slower scanning speed. This also increases the data size of each image and increases the processing load of the image capture, data transfer, and data storage systems. Much time is therefore required for image acquisition and processing.
One method proposed for acquiring images of negotiable instruments that can be used for electronic clearing scans the negotiable instrument to capture the image, and then binarizes the image based on density values in the image to acquire binary image data. With this method the threshold value for binarizing image data based on image density values can be calculated and set dynamically based on the scanned image.
When this threshold value is dynamically variable and calculated for each scanned image, the threshold value is determined from the background pattern in a preliminary scanning area. If the background pattern in the image of the negotiable instrument is not uniform, that is, if the background image in one part of the image differs greatly from the background image used to set the threshold value, it may not be possible to read the essential information, i.e., the account number, payment amount, payer, payee, and signature in the case of a check, from the background pattern in the binary image data.